life and times of a young kiwi

Flies my Falcon

So we we’ve been watching the original Star Wars films over the last few weeks. And I love them, they’re the films I grew up watching and they’re so fun to come back to. But watching the films again recently has made me notice something I never appreciated as a kid: Han solo is a total babe.

❤

He’s got the looks, the outfit, the cheek, the hot ride and the mystery. The scariest part of the trilogy for me as a kid was always when Han gets frozen in carbonite. Hearing a grown man scream was terrifying, and the concept that you could be aware that you’re about to die/be tortured and no one could do anything to stop it really affected me. I think Harrison Ford’s a great actor. And vulnerability is sexy.

Star Wars is a lot like Lord of the Rings in terms of the women who are represented (in that in the LotR books and the original SW trilogy there aren’t any), however I think you gotta give points for positive male relationships and Chewie and Han are two of the coolest guys you’ll meet. They do BFF really well. And in a movie full of white people, I think their interspecies friendship has multicultural overtones. Multiculturalism is really sexy.

cool kids

Something else I noticed this time round was the simplicity of the plot, particularly in regard to relationships (accidental sibling incest aside). There aren’t really any tortured souls, star-crossed lovers or “other women”. It’s much more simple, and I think more realistic than that. Plus it’s not all bed-hopping and sweaty writhing, which I for one find refreshing.

I read on Digital Spy that Harrison Ford found Han to be the type of character who doesn’t “outlive the movie”. In the 2008 article he said

Han Solo isn’t interesting to me. It’s a very narrow sort of utility in the story and it was great for my career and it was fun to play at the time but I wouldn’t go back there again. Those pants!

I know what he means about Han being a narrow character in and of himself, but I think it’s cool how the Star Wars universe has expanded so much in the years since the first films that it’s allowed each character to take on so much more potential.

I’m not sorry Harrison doesn’t want to reprise the role, he did a such a great job the first time anyway.